New Study Finds Dinosaur-Killing Asteroids Responsible for Mass Exinction of Marine Animals in Antarctica
A new Nature of Communications published study finds that the same asteroid that killed dinosaurs more than 60 million years ago is the same planet responsible for the mass extinction of marine animals in Antarctica.
British scientists reveal those findings are based on the ages of over 6,000 marine fossils recently discovered and analyzed for several years. They include such species as clams, snails and lizard Mozasaurus, one of the gigantically monstrous creatures featured in the 2015 action thriller film "Jurassic World."
Fossils Huge in Size
Reports are the marine fossils recently collected are the largest discovered by researchers anywhere across the globe.
"Our research essentially shows that one day everything was fine -- the Antarctic had a thriving and diverse marine community -- and the next, it wasn't," said James Witts, lead author of the study and a doctorate student at the University of Leeds.
He later added, "Clearly, a very sudden and catastrophic event had occurred on Earth."
Dinosaurs Demise Caused by Asteroids
The new fossil discovery is seen by experts as further evidence that dinosaurs died because of an asteroids plunging into the Gulf of Mexico as opposed to environmental changes stemming from a volcanic eruption of some sort.
"This is the strongest evidence from fossils that the main driver of this extinction event was the after-effects of a huge asteroid impact, rather than a slower decline caused by natural changes to the climate or by severe volcanism stressing global environments," Witts said.
Researchers added with marine fossils known to be abundant and research about them so plentiful, the new findings provide a stern challenge to past arguments to previous studies suggesting dinosaurs slowly died off over time.
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